Hi everyone, I just signed up after seeing someone with a similar problem get theirs fixed. I am really guessing it's my power supply, but I'm not sure.

My computer is quite old, it's a Dell Dimension 2400. 3-4 years old. It's got 768MB RAM, and a 71GB HD, not sure if that matters at all. Running Windows XP, and it worked great today until I opened up the tower and cleaned out the dust.

I did disconnect quite a few things inside the tower, but I am positive I put them all in the right place. I have had this problem in the past, but I left the computer alone for a day or so and it started working normally again.

Well, here's my main problem: I press the power button to the PC, and it turns off after about 3-5 seconds. Then, about 5 more seconds later, it starts up, but the monitor displays nothing. It just sits there and runs. The monitor works fine, I tested it on another computer.

Any suggestions will be greatly appreciated. If you need to know anything else about my PC specs, feel free to ask. I'll answer everything to the best of my knowledge, as I can't see anything anymore because it's not working properly at all.

Thanks,
-Arsonistx™

The 3-5 seconds sounds like the power button sticks as it is normal for the computer to then shut down.

The 5 second reboot might be your BIOS set to Power On after a power failure hence the computer is told to start automatically.

Now:

Does the power light on the front stay green or does it go to amber?

Next look at the rear of the case and you will see 4 diagnostic LEDs. What is their configuration?

Are any lit up? If so what color and what order?

Dell - Technical Support

Thanks for the quick reply jephree.

The power light on the front stays green, until right before it turns off, it turns amber for a fraction of a second. And when it restarts, it's amber for another fraction of a second, then it's green again. Just being specific, just in case, haha. On the back, the A and B LED lights are amber, and the C and D LED lights are green.

Memory modules are detected, but a memory failure has occurred.

Look here:

Documentation

Reseat your RAM.

That worked! Thank you very much for the help.

Also, I have one more question, if I may. I disconnected my CD-RW drive, and I also have a DVD-ROM drive, both plugged in properly inside the tower (I think..) but when the computer boots up, it says:

Secondary Drive 0 Not Found. Strike the F1 key to continue, or F2 to run the Setup Utility.

I want both drives to work though, lol. Do I have to do this in the Setup, or are there drivers that need to be installed or something?

Are you sure you connected them properly as they were?

Are they on the same cable?

If they were jumpered to Master/slave did you connect the proper cable ends?

Blue = motherboard; grey = slave; black = Master

Ahah, that was the problem. I guess I don't know as much as I thought I did. :P

Anyways, thanks very much for the help, I really appreciate it! Reputation added for sure.

No problem.

Let us know if we can help further.